Question or two

[HairlessOtter]

40 S&W

I am newer to reloading. I have read a couple of books. I am working on my "recipes" I am using the following equipment:

Press - Forster single stage Coax

Lee Dies + Lee Factory Crimp Die

Powder Measure - RCBS

Scale - RCBS 502 (balanced and checked for accuracy w/check weights)

Primer - RCBS hand prime tool

Primers - Wichester Small Pistol

Brass - Winchester & R P (Remington)

Bullet - Hard Cast Lead 170 gr

Powder - W231

Glock G-35 w/Lone Wolfe 4 port barrel

OAL - 1.1250

Crimp - I don't recall off the top of my head but it is very slight. I don't have my log book with me as I am at work.

Internet recipes call for 4.7-5.2 gr data link. All had some fail to eject and the 4.7 would barely make the targert. Speers calls for 5.8-6.2 gr. These seem a bit warm. All ran well. I have not tried the middle of this yet. I plan on cooking some up this weekend and testing them.

My question:

Why such a HUGE difference in powder amount? Anyone else have the same variables as I? If so, what is your recipe?

Edited August 19, 2009 by HairlessOtter

[DWPatriot]

My suggestion would be to get a good general reloading manual such as "Modern Reloading" by Lee

Lee Reloading Manual

I would also buy or borrow a chronograph to check your loads. It is hard to really know what your loads are doing without checking velocities. (Are you loading to make a power factor for competition or just trying to get a functioning load?)

My experience has been that the powder companies are very "optimistic" on their velocity figures. I have found Lee's recipes to be more realistic. I am running into the same spread of recommended powder weights (mfgr vs Lee) in trying to work up a new .45 acp load for my son.

Start low and slowly work your way up - always checking your brass for signs of over-pressure as you go.

[Sarge]

+1 on getting a chrono. Even one of the cheaper ones will work OK. I thought I could just load what others here recommended and what the books all said but I learned I was not making power factor with MY GUN. I got mine when somebody here made the comment that reloading without a chrono I was missing a HUGE piece of the puzzle. They were right. Now I live by the chrono.

[larry cazes]

+1 on getting a chrono. Even one of the cheaper ones will work OK. I thought I could just load what others here recommended and what the books all said but I learned I was not making power factor with MY GUN. I got mine when somebody here made the comment that reloading without a chrono I was missing a HUGE piece of the puzzle. They were right. Now I live by the chrono.

Great advice. Take it to heart and invest in a chrono before going much further. Different guns require different loads and different manufacturing lots of powder vary enough to make using a chronograph neccessary.

[HairlessOtter]

How about naming a few good, well priced chronos for a guy? What should one look for in purchasing a chrono?

[Justsomeguy]

How about naming a few good, well priced chronos for a guy? What should one look for in purchasing a chrono?

My personal favorite is the ProChrono Digital. They have an easy to use interface, can be paired with several accessories if you want them, and can be purchased for about $100 from various sources. For about $35 you can even get a "kit" from the manufacturer for a cable and software to download the data into your computer from the chronograph. The Chronograph itself will record not only the speed, but for the string of tested rounds report out the hi, low, average speed, extreme spread and standard deviation. A pretty good unit for the money, it is also one of the most reliable under field conditions from full sunlight to complete overcast.

[Classic_jon]

I found that a lot of the loads on the "handloads" site were in tuned raceguns or ones with other nonstandard add on's. Be careful when you are looking at some of the loads recommended that don't have a lot of dataas to what they were shooting it with.

One load I saw on there was for 10.2 gr of HS-6. I did some checking and looked at my speer manual and loaded one up at 9.2gr to test with. 9.2 is just below what Speer says is the danger zone with HS-6 and a 135gr JHP. I made 20 of them and I can tell you this ...the chrony said they were doing every bit of 1350fps out of my 4" stock Springfield XD service. You also *knew* those rounds had a lot of powder behind them too!

I made a note of it in my logbook, shot the rest of them...and don't plan to use that load again unless I am hunting hogs or something else that is LARGE ....